In supermarkets and similar environments where a wide range of diverse products are displayed for purchase by consumers, it is necessary to provide for a multitude of different types of signage. Although signage displaying product pricing and identifying information have been uniquely adapted for such diverse environments as refrigerated deli cases, produce stacks and in the display of boxed dry goods, all signage used in grocery stores and similar retail environments have at least one thing in common--that is, the product identifying information and pricing be capable of being rapidly and conveniently changed as the need arises for the prices of products constantly change requiring store clerks to update signage information frequently.
It has now been proposed that a convenient sign system could consist of a flip packet where plastic sheeting would be employed such that when product identification and pricing change, the plastic sheeting could merely be flipped about an axis resulting in the convenient and efficient display of current product information.
In the past, tubular binding elements have been proposed although their use in the present environment has not proven satisfactory. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,718,229 suggests the use of a tubular binder for a "loose leaf" assembly of paper sheets. In this instance, the patentee teaches the use of a tubular binding element having a transversely resilient body presenting a continuous longitudinal surface having open ends. It is proposed that this tubular element bend upon itself to provide a shorter longitudinal dimension whereby the open ends fit over binding tabs provided within each of the sheet-like elements. It has been found, however, that the bending of the tubular member is inconvenient and constant usage rapidly causes deterioration of the tabs which results in tab failure and subsequent release of the paper sheets from the overall stack.
FIGS. 1-3 depict typical prior art approaches to maintaining a flip chart or flip binding, each of which exhibits certain inherent shortcomings. For example, helical wire 51 is caused to pass within aligned openings 52 in order to maintain sheets 53 as a packet. However, due to the helical nature of wire 51, as pages are flipped, they ride along the helix and don't uniformly align. Further, helical wire such as element 51 is costly to manufacture.
FIG. 2 depicts a generally plastic configuration whereby binding element 60 is shown to possess individually tubular segment 61 attached by a spine 62. In light of the spine, however, pages which have been flipped are incapable of traveling 360.degree. around tubular segment 61 and thus an appropriate flip chart cannot be configured.
FIG. 3 depicts yet another type of wire binding element whereby "C" shaped wires 70 are channeled within appropriately spaced openings found within sheet material. However, like the embodiment of FIG. 2, the sheets cannot be flipped 360.degree. around such an element and, thus, a flip packet where each sheet of the packet is expected to lie flat against its preceding flipped sheet cannot be configured using such an embodiment. Also, such products tend to be made of metal and are expensive and, in addition, generally rust in due course.
Unfortunately, there has not been an instance where a suitable flip packet has been provided to perform the functions as noted above. In this regard, it was deemed important that any such invention be provided with the attributes of ease of manufacture, low cost of production, rustproof and, most importantly, has the ability to rapidly and conveniently exchange individual elements of sheet material as the need arises.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a stack of sheet material in the form of a flip packet for use in supermarkets or similar retail environments which is inexpensive to manufacture and which is capable of presenting to a user a rapid and convenient means of replacing and exchanging individual sheets within the flip packet stack.